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Killing spree rattles an image of safety
Tuesday, May 02, 2000 By Robert Dvorchak, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It was one of our most cherished beliefs, a point of civic pride. Even if our roads are deficient and we lag behind national economic booms, cozy, small town Pittsburgh and its environs are safe.
"Who's going to believe that today?" asked Nancy Wells, executive director of the Center for Victims of Violent Crime, who felt a personal sense of shame at the international notoriety spawned by a second hate-filled, racist rampage in as many months.
At the Beth El Congregation of the South Hills in Scott, the bullet-shattered windows were replaced yesterday. Erased from its brick facade were two spray-painted swastikas, particularly offensive because last night at sundown began Yom Hashoah, the Jewish day of remembrance of the Holocaust.
But still fresh was the sorrow for one of their own, 63-year-old Anita "Nicki" Gordon, shot multiple times in her home by, authorities say, her lawyer neighbor who had a history of mental disorders.
"We never thought it could happen here," said Sheila Schmeltz, president of Beth El. "That sense of complete safety is shattered for us. Our windows were replaced today; our hearts are forever scarred."
The stunned look re-emerged around the region because of the blood spilled in our suburbs.
Two months ago, in Wilkinsburg, a maintenance man, an ex-priest sipping coffee in Burger King and three people in a McDonald's were shot. They were white. The deranged suspect is black, his apartment filled with writings that indicate he hated whites, Jews, Asians, Italians and the media. His screed was decorated with swastikas.
On Friday, a 34-year-old, goateed attorney, the son of dentists who emigrated from Latvia, a man who grew up in privilege, is believed to be the gunman who killed a Jewish neighbor, wounded the manager of the Indian Grocers and killed an Indian customer, killed two Asian-Americans at the Ya Fei Chinese Cuisine restaurant and killed a black martial arts student at the C.S. Kim karate school in Beaver County. He spared the life of a white karate student, just as the Wilkinsburg gunman spared blacks as he targeted whites.
Along the way, Friday's killer also shot up the Beth El synagogue and painted messages of hate. He also shot out the windows of a synagogue in Carnegie, taking the time to twice shoot bullets through a brochure about the Holocaust.
Adding to the shock is that the suspect comes from Virginia Manor in Mt. Lebanon, a place with manicured lawns and princely mansions, his own home no more than a Mark McGwire home run from Jim Leyland's house and the homes of judges, politicians and CEOs.
The cameras caught both suspects, Richard Baumhammers and Ronald Taylor, smirking after they were arrested. If your gut reaction was that you wanted to slap the smirk off their faces, don't fret. The experts say that anger and the desire to lash back are normal reactions to abnormal circumstances. But don't give in to your emotions. The experts also say the Friday shootings are likely to reawaken the fresh grief from Wilkinsburg.
For complete Post-Gazette coverage, click here.
Both cases are said to encompass the so-called Big Three in rampages: mental illness, guns and an untoward amount of rage, a combination that is "a toxic brew, a prescription for violence," Wells said.
"We must have received two dozen calls over the weekend that said, 'If it can happen in Mt. Lebanon, I'm terrified.' Crime and specific violence can happen anywhere," Wells said. "We're not immune to it. And we're not unique."
The Anti-Defamation League said the same thing about the Big Three. And it advocated the passage of the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act, just as the Indian Abroad Center for Political Awareness did in Washington, D.C. A lot of people are saying the same things.
"We need to take stock of what is happening to us. Something is going terribly wrong somewhere," said Howard Reiger, president of the United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
"No community, no town, can say 'These things don't happen here,' " said Rabbi Neal Scheindlin of Beth El. "No one can say that anywhere."
According to the Anti-Defamation League, documents recovered from Baumhammers' home "suggest" a connection to the International Third Position, an anti-Jewish ideology espoused on the Internet.
"There is a world of cyber hatred," said league regional director Joel Ratner. "It appears Baumhammers nurtured his hate through the Internet."
None of that will make any sense to a 5-year-old Vietnamese boy, whose father, a delivery man, was killed. It's hard to forget the boy's cries -- "I want my daddy come home" -- especially since his grandfather died fleeing South Vietnam, which ceased to exist as a country 25 years ago Sunday.
Community leaders and clergy are telling us not to give in to despair, that these shooting sprees are still isolated incidents.
Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey is going to appoint a countywide committee of community leaders, clergy, foundations, corporate heads and grass roots organizations to address the events.
The religious community will respond to gun violence at an event from 8:30 a.m. to noon on May 12 at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill.
"This shooting spree is another tragic reminder that we live in a culture of violence, a culture of death, in which respect for life has been diminished," said Bishop Donald Wuerl, who will be the keynote speaker at Tree of Life.
Officials at both desecrated synagogues say they have been inundated with calls, cards and flowers from as far away as Jerusalem, Germany and London. Most callers say the same thing: This was the work of a deranged individual, not the community, and they are outraged as well.
Along that vein, the South Hills Interfaith Ministries and the Holocaust Center of Greater Pittsburgh will hold a 21st annual observance at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. It will be held at Beth El and had been scheduled before the shootings.
"Jewish tradition requires that we come together and carry on in time of crisis," Schmeltz said.
Government has the resources. Religion has the morality. But each of us must step up and not only say "Stop!" but begin building relationships with each other. "We have to start with each individual. It's all of our business. We have to get involved," said Anita White, prevention education manager for the Center for Victims of Violent Crimes.
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